


burning in your arms

by carnivorousBelvedere



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Just a lil something, Love Confessions, M/M, Quadrant Confusion, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 16:35:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20915183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carnivorousBelvedere/pseuds/carnivorousBelvedere
Summary: Karkat likes his black romance with Dave. No matter how much Dave claims humans can’t do it or that he can’t do it, he’s still so irritatingly good at it.He could do this dance with Dave until eternity, as long as the pathetic human always finds his way into Karkat’s bed, marked raw with his claws and kissed swollen by the edges of his teeth.-concept: Dave and Karkat are pitch, but then Dave confesses mid-fuck that he doesn't actually hate Karkat





	burning in your arms

**Author's Note:**

> _i'm dancing in flames_   
_i ain't scared of the blaze_   
_don't rescue me_   


Karkat likes his black romance with Dave. No matter how much Dave claims humans can’t do it or that he can’t do it, he’s still so irritatingly good at it. 

“Admit it, you feel black for me,” Karkat had said, bulge deep inside Dave and he writhed on the bed below him. 

“Maybe I do,” Dave had said, and Karkat hadn’t let him forget since.

It’s breathtaking, the way Dave moans and strains in his clawed grip, or how he tugs at Karkat’s clothes like he can’t get enough. 

He loves making that douchebag moan and writhe and lose his mind and fight to be on top when Karkat knows he’d rather be on the bottom, but won’t admit it, won’t let himself admit it, because that’s not what it’s about. 

Karkat stores away the pathetic squeaks Dave makes when he nips at the sensitive, thin skin of his neck, or the shuddering moan when he comes below him, fists full of bedsheet. Karkat is thinking about it when he responds to Dave’s smirk with a glare, and Dave fucking knows it. 

He could do this dance with Dave until eternity, as long as the pathetic human always finds his way into Karkat’s bed, marked raw with his claws and kissed swollen by the edges of his teeth. 

Except… he’s not really sure he actually could. 

Not when every time after he’s made Dave a mess he still has the urge to check in on him, which he shouldn’t want to. He shouldn’t want to hold him for longer after he comes.

He shouldn’t want to apologize, or stay close to him, to talk to him all day. His heart leaps when he sees Dave. 

It shouldn’t do that. They’re in pitch together for fuck’s sake. 

Karkat was a quadrant-vacillating mess and he didn’t even know where to begin to start sorting it out. 

But he was in this now, with Dave. He was in this and Dave hated him and they would keep doing this until they couldn’t. 

“You’re so fucking obnoxious,” Karkat growls before diving into another kiss. Their breaths come fast and heavy already as they tug at each other’s clothes with a direct goal in mind. 

“So you tell me,” Dave says, though the last word ends in a high pitched inhale as Karkat digs his teeth along the side of his neck. He tilts his head back as Karkat makes his teeth comfortable along the soft skin there, his throat bobbing as he fights for words. “Y-You’re comin’ on a little strong today. Feeling a bit pent up there?”

Karkat responds with a harsh shove of Dave’s body into the wall. “Only the sight of your face is all it takes to piss me off.”

“Oooh, Mister Vantas stop it, that’s almost romantic,” he cracks breathily. 

Karkat digs his nails into Dave’s side, regretful that his shirt isn’t off yet and that it isn’t having the full effect. “Don’t you fucking dare,” he snarls. How dare Dave compare this to anything _red_? Karkat feels a strike of panic, so he leans forward to shut Dave up by dominating his mouth again.

Kissing Dave has always been the sure-fire way to shut him up. 

Karkat hates how much he loves kissing Dave. Those lips, his heady scent, the way he tastes- Karkat is truly addicted to it. He would never tell Dave straight up, though. Karkat couldn’t even imagine how irritatingly smug he’d be about it. 

Dave is too human, too soft, to really be as rough with him back. But Dave manages, in the way that he tugs at Karkat’s clothes and forces him bodily when he really wants him. His blunt teeth aren’t enough to break skin, but he sure does try sometimes. Not that it doesn’t hurt, Karkat would just never admit to what marks Dave was actually capable of leaving. 

But it’s the softness of the human that Karkat wishes he could explore outside of just these heated trysts. 

It’s one of those days when Dave is fighting with every fiber in his body to be on top. Karkat only ever lets him. Dave knows it and it drives him crazy. 

Dave shoves Karkat back and breaks the kiss, shoving Karkat against the wall behind him to bite his neck, _hard_. Karkat growls.

He might have imagined it, but he swears he felt Dave shudder. 

“You can admit it hurts,” Dave says quickly. 

“Sorry your poorly designed dentitia can’t even make me bleed,” Karkat replies. 

Getting to the bed is an affair of torn off clothes, like always.

Dave seems determined to be inside Karkat today. Karkat should fight him even more, but he knows he actually wants this. He wants to feel Dave’s stiff bulge thrusting inside him, willingly, and goddammit he shouldn’t want that. 

So Karkat doesn’t let him. He makes Dave work for it. 

Finally Dave has him pinned down, struggling to find Karkat’s nook as he kisses him. Dave thrusts into him and Karkat drives his claws into Dave’s back. Dave, for all the deep scratching it’s doing, doesn’t stop. He starts to fuck into Karkat rough and measured.

Karkat doesn’t want to admit how good it feels as he lets go and takes clawfulls of bedsheet.

Then he says it like he usually does and thinks nothing of it: 

“It’s no wonder I hate you so much.”

Dave thrusts into him with a gasp and it feels like he’s suddenly so close to Karkat, breathing his air, staring into his eyes.

“I don’t hate you,” Dave says. 

_What?_

It’s like time stops. Karkat feels something smash into his chest. He freezes. “What?”

Dave pulls back and thrusts in again, but it’s slower this time, and with less force. Karkat just stares at his face, frozen in shock. He releases the bedding by his hands lay there unmoving. Dave starts up fucking him again, pace turning soft and slow but deep and intentioned, the undulating of his hips pushing in deeper. His fingers somehow find Karkat’s relaxed fists and weave them together.

Dave is holding his hand and Karkat feels himself starting to panic, because this can only mean one thing:

Dave is red for him. 

Karkat internally pushes the truth away, but that doesn’t stop Dave. 

“Fuck, Karkat, I can’t do this anymore,” Dave breathes, closing his eyes and pressing his forehead against Karkat’s. “I like you so fucking much.” 

Then Dave kisses him again, but it’s not a black angry biting kiss. It’s soft and deep and languid, not any force at all behind it. 

Karkat freezes up. He can’t even begin to process Dave flipping red on him. Karkat doesn’t think he can do this. This is wrong, so wrong… 

Dave slows down, the movement of his hips shifting to something Karkat feels like he’s seen in human movies. It’s not just sex, not fucking. 

This is _making love_, Dave is trying to make love to him.

“I just want you to feel good, Karkat. Oh, fuck. I can’t. I can’t do this anymore. Karkat, I don’t just like you, I’m fucking… _I’m in love with you_.”

-

Dave is in love with Karkat. 

Their relationship had started out rather antagonistic, because Karkat found Dave to be an insufferable douchebag, which Dave was, and Dave found Karkat to be an abrasive control freak, which Karkat was. 

It had been like that for awhile, until Dave realized he didn’t really hate Karkat. In fact, it was much the opposite. For a time it had just been a crush, but Dave knew Karkat would never want him unless he could fit into one of his quadrants, and Dave knew he never could. He couldn’t, not when he loved teasing Karkat for his reactions but also craved his company and cared about him. He wanted everything from Karkat and he knew he would never have it. 

But because Karkat hated Dave, and Dave found himself wanting to spend more time around him, eventually he started playing the part Karkat wanted him for. He sought out Karkat with the excuse of annoying him, while he secretly reveled in the attention the troll gave him. 

Eventually Karkat had called him out on it. “Stop making black passes at me, Strider. It’s not cute.”

“I don’t do your stupid troll quadrants,” Dave had shot back. 

Exchanges like this continued for weeks, until one day it all changed. 

They were all hanging out, their whole friend group, and Karkat and Dave had been at each other’s throats the entire night. That is to say, they had been trading pointed banter with each other all night. 

Dave loved the way Karkat had with words. There really was nothing quite like it. 

He says something, and he doesn’t even remember what it was, but it was enough to tip them over the threshold after all this back and forth. 

Karkat gets fucking pissed, and suddenly Dave is being walked backwards into the wall while an angry troll spits in his face. 

Then Karkat grabs his shoulders, hard, and kisses him.

This first kiss is not soft or sweet, it’s rough and claiming and livid.

Dave does the stupid thing and kisses him back, because Karkat is kissing him and the only thing on his brain is ‘Karkat is kissing me’ and for a moment nothing else matters. 

“I thought you didn’t do black,” Karkat had said, breaking away with panting breaths and a scowl. 

“I don’t,” Dave replied, and he hadn’t lied, he hadn’t lied because he didn’t hate Karkat, not really, not truly. 

And all Karkat had done was roll his eyes and kiss Dave again, biting his lips, and Dave decided he could maybe try this spades thing on for size if it meant kissing Karkat ever again. 

Keeping the facade up was torture. He wishes so much that sometimes instead of leaving to immediately clean himself up Karkat would stay and hold him. He wishes he could kiss Karkat slowly, just enjoying the taste of him. 

He was always going to give in, eventually. 

Dave is pretty sure Karkat hates him, but he can’t do it anymore. Not when it hurts so much after Karkat leaves him post-coitally without so much as a goodbye. Not when he’s dreaming of him every night, but it’s nothing like the black intensity of their relationship’s reality. 

Dave doesn’t hate Karkat, not even a little bit, and he’s pretty sure he never has. 

But Karkat hates him, and that he is sure of. 

“I get it if you don’t feel that way about me but please just let me have this,” Dave whispers, his other hand finding and holding Karkat’s cheek. Karkat still hasn’t said anything, and Dave can feel heartbreak and rejection filling him like freezing water. He can’t look at the troll’s shocked eyes, expecting to be pushed away at any moment but hoping desperately that won’t happen. 

-

No, this can’t be happening. This is wrong. Karkat hates Dave. _Hates_ him.

Come on, it’s _Dave_. Sunglasses-cocky-douchebag-asshole Dave. 

But Karkat is so confused, because he’s trying to hate him. He’s trying to hate him because he knows he’s supposed to, but it’s not all there. Something else within him beats back against the pitch. 

_Dave is flushed for me?_

No, he can’t do that. It’s wrong. He can’t think about it, can’t consider it, because if he does he knows he’s going to want Dave in all his quadrants and that’s _wrong_.

Dave shouldn’t be doing this to him. It’s not fair, it’s confusing, but oh, god.

He feels so good. Dave feels amazing over him, something about the heavy blurring of quadrants and the deep thrusts lighting Karkat on fire. For possibly the first time in his life, he is rendered completely and uncharacteristically speechless. 

Karkat melts into Dave. Instead of finding vulnerable skin to dig his claws into, he runs a hand through Dave’s hair and just lets himself feel the human all over. 

Dave kisses him again softly and Karkat sighs into his mouth, barely returning the kiss as he absorbs the sensation of Dave fucking him flush. 

Dave pulls away and presses his forehead against Karkat’s, closing his eyes. “Please, say something, anything,” he whispers, pushing into Karkat again. 

Karkat is having a hard time even thinking with the way Dave is pailing him now, with shifted hips and purposeful thrusts that feel so intense, his bulge ground between them. 

“I just,” Karkat gasps, releasing a pathetically confused sound. “Just don’t stop.” 

Dave brushes his thumb against Karkat’s cheek, cupping his jaw. “I— I’m not going to.”

Dave keeps going even though he’s aching with anxiety, but still so relieved he doesn’t have to keep up the black facade with Karkat anymore. He keeps up the pace, trying to make Karkat feel amazing with how much he loves him, actually loves him. He kisses Karkat and is surprised when Karkat actually kisses him back, feather light and soft, and it feels _incredible_. 

Not that he doesn’t like the rough kisses he usually has with Karkat, but this is different. 

He just doesn’t want to get too hopeful about it. 

“God, Karkat, I just want to make you feel good. Is this… does this feel good?” He gasps. 

Karkat meets his eyes. This is probably the most intimate thing that’s ever happened to him in his life and Dave’s breath catches with what is returned to him in Karkat’s gaze. It fills him with wonder and hope. 

“Yeah,” Karkat breathes, like it isn’t obvious how good it is with how he can barely talk.

Dave keeps going, thrusting into him as he locks eyes with Karkat. It feels like his body is on fire, the energy between them electric. 

Karkat feels _so good_. Dave just keeps gazing into his eyes trying to communicate all the intense passion for Karkat he has kept in hiding for so long. 

“You’re flushed for me,” Karkat says in a whisper. Dave feels his heart squeeze uncomfortably. He can’t look at Karkat as he says it, he just hides his face in Karkat’s neck, slowing his movement only for a moment to speak. 

“No, I- I just _love you_. And, I know that… I know that you’re a troll, and you can’t feel that way for me, you can’t feel everything all at once the way I want you to.” 

What Dave is presenting to him so casually makes Karkat get indescribably anxious. All the quadrants, all at once? He’s not supposed to feel that way. Even when trolls do it with humans it always seems restricted to flush. He should have his quadrants and be happy with that, he shouldn’t be greedy, shouldn’t take what Dave is offering because it’s _wrong_. 

He is drawn out of his confusion by Dave, whose pace is stalling now, tempo changing. Dave groans out, and Karkat realizes he’s close to coming.

“Love you,” Dave whispers. “I love you so much.”

Karkat can’t help it anymore. All of his emotions and the physical sensation coalesce at once. He comes under Dave, his back arching up into him as red fluid spurts from between his legs, all his muscles tensing and shaking. Dave curses and speeds up, trying to catch his orgasm with the troll’s. 

“Fuck, Karkat, I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Feeling Dave come inside him isn’t a new experience for Karkat, but something about watching him come within him this time feels delicate. Dave tosses his head back and groans as he starts to come, dropping down and kissing Karkat, kissing him hard, as he fucks it out to entirety. 

The experience peaks and crashes. The heat of the moment immediately drains out into understanding of what just transpired. 

Dave is left panting, breathless, and vulnerable as he meets Karkat’s reddened face and still-shocked gaze but can't find it within himself to look away. 

_I fucked up._ He told Karkat he loved him, and he was an idiot thinking Karkat felt the same. 

“Fuck, I’m sorry,” Dave whispers and finally looks. He starts to pull back, make distance between them, but Karkat stops him with an iron grip around his bicep to keep them pressed together. 

His eyes meet Karkat’s. The troll just blinks back at him. Dave’s heart pounds away in his chest painfully as the seconds stretch on like eternity. 

Karkat has never been this confused in his life. He just came like that… because of the quadrant changing? Because Dave said he loved him? What the hell just happened? 

The look on Dave’s face is so pained, and Karkat’s heart swells with pity. 

Holy shit. He _does_ feel everything for Dave. Park of him wants to drag Dave into a pile to talk about it, part of him wants to find a way to snark back, and part of him just wants to kiss Dave breathless. 

Though right now, most of him just wants to stay here, laying beside Dave. 

He doesn’t have words. He grabs Dave’s face between his hands and pulls him back down into a heated kiss, claws sliding into Dave’s hair. Dave responds with a gasp and melts into it, kissing him back just as intensely. It doesn’t help him with finding what to say, it just fries him even more. These aren’t the kind of kisses Karkat’s used to sharing with him. Dave eventually slips out of him, mess puddling between their bodies, but Karkat doesn’t stop.

Eventually Dave pulls away, but only to rest his forehead against Karkat’s and catch his breath. “Karkat,” he murmurs, and Karkat nods against him, a silent answer he hopes Dave understands. He still doesn’t know what to say. He never imagined telling someone he loved them like this, never like this, and it’s his own damn fault. Karkat thrusts his chin forward to meet his lips again. _I’m sorry_, he tries to express through his touch. _I don’t hate you, I need you, I’m flush for you, I think love you, too._

Dave is the one that breaks away, shaking his head. Karkat’s heart throbs. He needs to say something, answer him for real.

Karkat inhales sharply and closes eyes.

“I don’t hate you,” he manages to strangle out, pushing Dave away for a moment. “I never hated you, I’m sorry.” The words come out choked, his voice thick with welling emotion. He feels so much for Dave, how did he never see it sooner?

He blinks open to gaze at Dave. His claws find their way into his hair again, but slow this time, just feeling his hair under his fingers. 

“Just… just lay here with me. For a little bit,” he whispers. 

Dave nods after a moment, and Karkat knows he’s terrible for not answering him yet, but he needs to think. 

Eventually they come to rest face to face on the pillow, sharing air. Karkat can feel Dave’s anxiety rising as he starts to twitch and fidget. 

“If you’re going to reject me just do it already,” Dave sighs, not able to look into his eyes. 

Karkat grabs his face and makes him. “I’m not going to reject you because somehow, for some reason, I’m pretty sure I’m flush for your obnoxious ass.”

“I’m not—

“I know it’s not the same for humans, just give me a moment,” Karkat grumbles, cutting off Dave’s protest. 

Dave stops talking and Karkat can feel him relax a little.

“It’s just… I can’t share you, Karkat. That’s why I can’t do quadrants. I want you. I want all of you.” Dave squeezes him momentarily and let’s go. “I know that’s normal for guys but I can’t help it.” 

“Fuck. I think most trolls would call that selfish but I think that was the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

They both stare at each other for a second and finally, fucking finally, the tension breaks. Dave _laughs_

“What? What is it?” Karkat scowls.

“Fuck, fuck, I’m sorry. I’m just. Fuck, I’m just so relieved. I thought you’d have already kicked my ass to the curb.” 

Karkat huffs and pulls him closer. “I wouldn’t have done that.”

“I didn’t know that.” 

Karkat rolls his eyes. “I don’t hate you,” he grumbles. Dave tenses again. 

More time passes on, growing tense. Karkat knows Dave is waiting on him. 

“I… it’s kind of the opposite. I think I’ve been flush for you for awhile… I’m just an idiot, okay? But I want something with you. Not the human way or the troll way.” Dave gives him a look. “I… don’t know how to explain.” 

The human smiles. “I think I get it? You want our own brand of interspecies foray?”

“Yeah. Because,” Karkat swallows. “I don’t know. I love you? I’m flush for you? I don’t think there’s a word that encapsulates the way I actually feel for you.” 

Dave smiles again, really smiles, and wow that makes Karkat feel good to see. “Now I think that’s the most damn romantic thing anyone’s ever told me.” 

Karkat snorts, but the soft smile on his face reads otherwise. “I just need a little time to, uh, adjust.” 

Dave is grinning at him. “I think I can manage that.”

**Author's Note:**

> _and now i'm burning in your arms_   
_endless fire in my heart_   
_ [no, it's not a false alarm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9bQJDNvuz8) _   



End file.
